I like a good story as much as anyone but unless a non-major is a top 5 seed, I'd prefer they exit by the second weekend. at some point I'd prefer to see the best teams duke it out, not teams that caught others napping and/or caught fire and overachieved unless they were a top team all year (perhaps like 2010 Butler).

This also goes for major conference teams seeded low in the bracket except for the ones that have pedigree or top notch recruits/a super star recruit.

Cinderellas are cool and what make the tournament fun but at some point I prefer to see the best teams from throughout the season battle for the title. Plus, we've had plenty of outsiders make runs to the Final Four in recent years, so it's not so rare and if it happened more often it'd lose what makes it special, like the shocking run by Mason in 2006.

This coming from a pretty large non-major advocate.

I tune out once all the Cinderella's and local teams are gone. Last year's finals meant nothing to me. The big boys no longer have stars that I can recognize or give a crap about, so they aren't that much different from the Cinderella's in that respect for me.

I know it will never happen, but I'll be rooting for FGCU to win the damn thing. And I'm sure I'm not alone. They're exciting and fun to watch... of course that may not be the case once stiffer competition rises, but it'll be fun to see them try.

All the way. You can talk all you want about Cinderella's catching other teams napping (although why you would nap in an NCAA tournament game is beyond me) but they are already so far behind the 8-ball to begin with that it makes it that much more impressive when they do make a run. Mids play their toughest games of the year on the road almost without exception. The teams from the Big 6, not so much. Mids are then notoriously underseeded compared to the bigs counterparts. They never get a walkover game like the big boys do. The bigs get to play really good teams at home and when they upset them it carries a ton of weight even though they may have a losing record in conference. Mids don't have that luxury and when they lose in conference after a 7 hour bus ride it dooms any at large chance they may have had. So no, I have no problem not seeing teams from a traditional power conference in the Final Four.

(03-28-2013 08:53 AM)OUVan Wrote:  All the way. You can talk all you want about Cinderella's catching other teams napping (although why you would nap in an NCAA tournament game is beyond me) but they are already so far behind the 8-ball to begin with that it makes it that much more impressive when they do make a run. Mids play their toughest games of the year on the road almost without exception. The teams from the Big 6, not so much. Mids are then notoriously underseeded compared to the bigs counterparts. They never get a walkover game like the big boys do. The bigs get to play really good teams at home and when they upset them it carries a ton of weight even though they may have a losing record in conference. Mids don't have that luxury and when they lose in conference after a 7 hour bus ride it dooms any at large chance they may have had. So no, I have no problem not seeing teams from a traditional power conference in the Final Four.

What you mean to say is mids play their toughest OOC games on the road. For Louisville or Duke their toughest games are in conference and for Louisville even the bottom of the Big East will make you work. Gonzaga makes an effort to schedule good OOC but outside of St. Mary's and sometimes BYU the conference schedule is soft.

The second weekend. LaSalle-Wichita State is easily the least attractive game left.

As far as I'm concerned, Cinderellas are the big boys if they keep winning. Just becuse the "big boys" have that title doesn't mean they by right are entitled to keep winning. I love it when David slays a Goliath.

I think the tourney is too big. I want the best teams to advance, not the Cinderellas. The size of the tourney decreases the chance the best teams get to the final 4. All it takes is one bad half. 1st weekend and flush the Cinderellas. Now teams who are simply unjustly underrated are a different matter. Oregon shouldn't have been a 12. FGCU should have probably been a 12, not a 15.

(03-28-2013 09:11 AM)Hokie4Skins Wrote:  The second weekend. LaSalle-Wichita State is easily the least attractive game left.

That's because people want to watch David vs. Goliath, not David vs. David.

EDIT: On the other hand, that game guarantees a David vs. Goliath game on Saturday, because the LaSalle-Wichita State winner plays the Arizona-Ohio State winner.

Sorry, FGCU lost to something called Lipscomb (insert obvious jokes if you know how to pronounce that) twice during the regular season and didn't even win one of the worst conferences in D-1, the Atlantic Sun. I agree on Oregon.

And for the record, I enjoy seeing the mids make big runs, even to the national title game but just not every year or at the very least, I hope to see mid's that were considered good and ranked throughout the season (i.e. top 5 seeds) go that far if anything, not someone like Harvard if they were still alive (though I'd have to admit it'd be very fun if that school, out all of them, made a major run just because of it's academic prestige).

It was a little different when the big boys were actually great teams, but now they really just aren't. Even the #1 seeds are very beatable teams and not all that impressive. Really the first week of the tournament is the only thing that's amazing. This weekend is ok, and the final 4 weekend is usually a letdown.

I agree. But like I said, I still don't want to see too many non-majors make it too far too often if for no other reason than the fact it cheapens the thrill of seeing an outsider beat the system. That Butler-VCU Final Four game (which I was at Reliant Stadium to watch live in person) seemed more like a first round matchup than Final Four game.

A Florida Gulf Coast-La Salle/Wichita State title game would be fun on one hand but dull on the other. Now a Florida Gulf Coast-Louisville title game (since they are the team everyone expects to win it) would be a Disney movie waiting to happen given all of this attention FGCU has gotten.